Author's notes: These are compiled posts for the Earth Spacedock RP on the Star Trek Online forums. Finally decided on Captain Aeris' new ship! Written in October 2016. Earth Spacedock, Pages 60-61 Captain Elric - Leora IV, Subterranean Elric's fall through a vertical tunnel turned diagonal and he slid out into an underground passage. He then got up on solid ground and, with his palm beacon light, he saw that the new tunnel was endless in either direction. After several minutes of walking, a parrot transported in and began fluttering toward him, frantically! Seconds later, a metallic cable with an end that split like a mini-claw, grabbed the bird in mid-air and pulled it away from Elric. The bird fluttered off, toward the opening in the wall several meters away, and Elric saw the cable sucked back into a 6 inch tall robot spider that looked like a crystal spinner. *Click!? Click, chirp!?* "Whoa! You're not what I was expecting?" Elric said. "And, by the way, I had that." The large arachnid hopped excitedly. *Chirp! By the way, I had that.* "That was you I heard on the surface, wasn't it? Well, anyway, I'm looking for a way out of here. Know of any?" It leapt onto the rocky wall and scurried passed Elric. *Click, click, chirp!* Then it leapt back onto the ground and started leading Elric. The Captain shrugged and began following. --- General Kro'nok - I.K.S. Hav'ok, Xarantine Sector General Kro'nok sat in his command chair as always, observing the Cube-bound away team on the view screen. Unexpectedly, a drone emerged from its alcove and began running towards them, tackling one of the officers and injecting him with nanoprobes. One officer's weapon was blasted away by a plasma bolt and the Gorn commander, too, soon became Borg. The General was shocked. After all, the entire away team of Honor Guards had been obliterated in under a minute. "Borg drones shouldn't be able to move that quickly." The Borg Tactical Fusion Cube came closer into view. It was a monster. Massive in size. It headed for Earth, having destroyed anything in its path. --- Captain Elric - Leora IV, Subterranean "So, your name is Zeta, huh? And you've been roaming the stars from ship to ship?" Elric said. "Sorry to hear that, and that you ended up here." The android-spider continued leading the way. *Click, click! Chirp!* "Speaking of ships, I think I've lost contact with mine. Things can beam in, but I can't beam out. I must be on the cusp of range. Figures that I'd lose my second chance at the Amaterasu. As for this medallion, its designs are nearly identical to depictions found on this planet. It's been claimed this world was a site for an ancient El-Aurian colony." Suddenly, the two came upon the end of the tunnel, leading into a giant open area containing an age-old, underground city, lit by luminescent plant-based filaments. The buildings were abandoned, dusty, and at the center of them was an alien pyramid. --- Captain Aeris - U.S.S. Viracocha, Bridge The human command officer sat at her chair aboard the Sojourner-class starship as it was examining a Class J nebula. A few seconds later, her arm console reported the Borg signature heading for Earth. Aeris stood and narrowed her brow. "All stop. Load up the engines and set a course." --- Borg Tactical Cube - Sol System, Earth The vessel dropped out of warp. Its mere presence had already altered the orbit of the moon, and the flight paths of half a dozen starships in the area, at least until the vessels were blasted away, almost immediately. Admiral Quinn had already organized as many ships as the Federation could muster here and now, but with only a few dozen ships, most of which were barely flying, the situation was bleak, to say the least. Admiral Quinn came over the comms. "This is Admiral Quinn on Spacedock. We've got officers working to set up a pulse to repel the incoming Borg vessel, but they won't be able to manage it in time, so you'll have to hold off that Borg ship, somehow, until they do. Do whatever it takes; anything and everything is authorized to keep that thing at bay. We can't let them--" The transmission cut out and was substituted for a new one. "We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile." The Mephiles immediately shot towards the Borg ship, followed by a number of other Federation ships. The Borg vessel charged weapons. Lexington maneuvered into position, and the cube was suddenly struck by a constant Anti-Tachyon Beam from her main deflector. The Borg vessel targeted the Lexington, firing on her main deflector with a salvo of heavy plasma bolts. The Mephiles moved to target and destroy the vessel's targeting sensors. The Sojourner-class Viracocha dropped warp at Earth Spacedock in time to engage the enormous Borg cube. Aeris stepped forward in shock. "Never thought I'd be back here so soon. Well, new crew, new ship. Let's see how we hold up. Offensive maneuvers! Fire all weapons!" --- Captain Elric - Leora IV, Underground Lost City Elric and his robotic spider companion, Zeta, walked through the ancient subterranean core, passing dust-infused, abandoned building after abandoned building. He then came upon a public square displaying a giant stone wall with age-old inscriptions on it. "This appears to be Ancient El-Aurian. It's quite similar to recent historical El-Aurian, a writing that no one is familiar with." Zeta, at his feet, perked. *Click!?* "My professor was only one of a few that got their hands on a sample and was cataloging it back in my Academy days. I snuck in a study session with it once. If I'm not mistaken, by the looks of the pictographs and inscriptions, it's describing a communal anti-power vessel, and then it displays the top of the pyramid." Suddenly, there was a growl from behind him. Upon turning, he saw a tall, hairy beast, resembling a mugato, staring him down. It quickly moved forward and attacked, launching its giant forearms right for Elric. The Captain and Zeta leapt out of the way as the forearms smashed into the stone tiles and sent rocky debris into the air. The two explorers turned and ran for it! As Elric was running through the old streets, he saw two more giant mugato cousins running and leaping at pace over rooftops in his direction. Elric then turned toward the center-town pyramid. --- Borg Tactical Cube - Sol System, Earth The Borg vessel returned fire on all ships, firing off all kinds of weapons. Plasma beams, plasma lances, torpedoes, plasma bolts, cutting beams, cannons, etc. Basically everything the Borg have ever wielded. Lexington held her ground, using every conventional and unconventional trick in the book to survive the onslaught, but it was starting to become clear it was taxing the ship's systems to do so. A Miranda-class starship's saucer section was torn apart and as the Viracocha fired a spread of quantum torpedoes into the Borg cube, Aeris' starship dropped shields for a moment to beam the other ship's survivors on board. The Viracocha's port hull was hit with a harsh beam, but its access was quickly cut off by her shields going back up. Aeris had the Viracocha tractor beamed the Miranda-class starship toward the Borg cube, dropped tractor, and fired phasers into the derelict Federation starship until its core breached against the Borg cube's hull. A massive explosion bloomed behind an escaping Viracocha. The Borg vessel, seemingly oblivious to any attack, continued firing, now targeting Aeris' ship with a flurry of plasma lances and heavy plasma bolts. The Mephiles continued firing on the Borg ship, but the Borg vessel was starting to adapt to the anti-tachyon beam, hopes of sending it back to the mirror universe started fading. Nat and 11 of 14, rushing to set up an anti-tachyon pulse from Earth Spacedock, redoubled their efforts. An energy spike came from Lexington, along with a massive burst along the Anti-Tachyon Beam, which slammed into the cube with enough force to actually shift an entire side of the cube back to its home universe. Shortly after the burst, all power on the Lexington failed, and the main deflector exploded, damaging the ship and leaving her adrift and spinning out of control. Half the Cube went back its home universe, but the rest of the Cube held on. For a moment, another massive ship of unknown, yet somehow familiar design transitioned into this universe, then disappeared just as quickly. A few minutes passed. No more rifts, nor any more mirror ships. Everything was calm. A Miranda-class vessel locked a tractor beam on the Lexington and towed the ship back to Earth Spacedock, as Krystal materialized on the bridge of the Mephiles. The Viracocha lost its shields from the attack, and drifted sideways until it stopped itself. The crew began recovering failed emergency systems. --- Captain Elric - Leora IV, Underground Lost City Elric reached the pyramid steps but was intercepted by the two other hairy beasts. They stopped before him and just as they were about to attack, Zeta leapt onto the face of the first one. Elric jumped back, away from the incoming fist of the second beast, while the first struggled to pull the android spider off him. With the second mugato's fist embedded into the stone steps, Elric ran forward, up its arm and force-kneed the animal in its head. The beast fell onto its back, confused and disoriented, while the first mugato did the same. Zeta jumped onto Elric's shoulder and the human continued his run up the steps. "Let's see what these Ancient El-Aurian ancestors were coveting," Elric said. "I'm not even sure what it could be? I suppose they have some extra-dimensional relationship with the space-time continuum?" But as they reached the top, the large mugato-like creature they first encountered landed there, in front of them. Elric clenched his fist and Zeta, on the Captain's shoulder, stood himself up. --- U.S.S. Mephiles, Bridge Krystal's hair was messy, and it looked like she took a hit to the head, but she was still standing. "Did it work?" she asked, sounding a little out of it. Scott looked concerned. "At a cost. The fabric between our universes is weakening, enough that some other ship passed into our universe, only for a moment." Sarah seemed worried. "I saw it. It wasn't just any other ship either. It was an Infamous dreadnought." Nat turned to Sarah, concerned, then turned to Krystal. "Didn't Mirror Nat say something about the Terran Emperor's flagship being a massive ship? What if the changeling Admiral Nat turned the Infamous into an agent, using him to take over the Terran Empire?" Jim was thinking. "Now it makes more sense. What if they only sent that Borg ship so we'd break down the space between our universes, forcing the Terran Empire to launch an all out invasion and thus leave us weakened so we have no choice but to agree to mirror Nat's Alliance's terms when we meet?" --- Captain Elric - Leora IV, Underground Lost City The large hairy beast growled in anger and flung out a giant fist at Elric, who leaned to the side and used the extended arm to elevate himself into a kick across the creature's face. Zeta lept and locked several metallic cables into it and sent an electric shock through them. The beast was knocked out, fell down, and hung, partially off the edge of the top of the temple. Zeta sucked his cables back in, returned to Elric's shoulder and the Captain examined an odd ancient box-like artifact on a pedestal in the centre. Before touching it, he read inscriptions on the pedestal. "It's explaining that this isn't the only colonized world of these people. But, even at nearly ten thousand years into the past, these Ancient El-Aurian offshoots somehow reached this part of space, to what, hide this thing?" *Chirp! Hide this thing. Click!* Zeta brought Elric's attention to the surrounding city below, where a hundred more of those beasts were approaching the temple steps. Elric took out the medallion he acquired from Earth Spacedock and saw that there was a slot in the El-Aurian artifact that was the same circular size. He then joined the medallion with the artifact and a large wave permeated the space-time continuum all around them. The robot spider scrunched its eight legs in and sat in a docile, regenerative mode on Elric's upper arm as the Captain began an eerily walk down the steps. The large beasts growled and roared in anger as he walked by them, but they didn't dare come close to the artifact. Elric made his way out of the underground city. --- Captain Elric - I.S.S. Amaterasu, Bridge Elric and Zeta beamed to the ship, and Elric took scans of the altered space around Leora IV. He then set course for Earth Spacedock and had a seat. "So, you were built by a cyberneticist a long time ago? Fascinating. Well, you're welcome to join me. I'm pretty much crew-less on this ship. Plus, any assistance dismantling this faulty transporter device would be a great help."
Author's notes: These are compiled posts for the Earth Spacedock RP on the Star Trek Online forums. Written in October 2016. Earth Spacedock, Pages 62-64 Captain Elric - Earth Spacedock The Prometheus-class I.S.S. Amaterasu dropped warp at Earth Spacedock and Elric met with Admiral Quinn in his office, outside Operations. "And, so, the El-Aurian Artifact appears to amplify the effects of the medallion, even modifying space itself, to what end, I don't know. But the El-Aurians aren't afraid of Q. It's possible this thing could be a neutralizer for their kind, possibly a more powerful Q kind, or Super-Q." "We'll need to make use of this," Quinn replied. "In the meantime, assist in command here at Earth Spacedock in case we have any more surprises from the Mirror Universe." --- Admiral Nat - U.S.S. Mephiles The commander of the Firestorm-K, another Admiral Nat, was brought up to present Admiral Nat's ready room. He, Captain Nat, Captain Jim Dennison, Captain Sarah Walker, and Rear Admiral 11 of 14 were all already there waiting for him. "So, admiral, you've already told me the story. From a doomed future, Starfleet built your Firestorm as a last resort and sent it to my time to prevent the Alliance War that would lead to galaxy-wide destruction, etc. etc. We'll have to use your futuristic technology to our advantage, no doubt. Word has it that changeling me might be trying to free the Dominion from a certain secret armada, so we might be able to get them to listen to reason..." Sarah sighed. "Wow, I had nearly forgot about the peaceful option, after hanging around with all these hot-heads." Admiral Nat continued, turning to Sarah. "Of course, I suspect that Captain Jade might already being trying that, if our suspicions are true. We should head back to Earth Spacedock and meet up with this Captain Elric you told me about." --- Earth Spacedock, Operations They arrived at ESD, requesting permission to beam down. When Admiral Nat and the others arrived, a number of security officers, along with Vice Admiral Nakari and Vice Admiral Ma'tol, were already waiting for them. Elric stepped out from the perimeter of security officers. "Admiral Nat," he greeted by way of confirmation. "So, you're not the guy who controls the Alliance, huh? We have two large factions about to go to war, and I intend on sticking with you until I can reach your Changeling doppelgänger. His future Na'khul agents cost me my ship." Admiral Nat replied. "No, I'm not that guy, and believe me, my crew briefed me on everything." Nakari spoke up turned to his future descendant, then back to Elric, and spoke up. "We've got a bit of new info you'll probably want in on, Captain." Vice Admiral Mat'ol, evidently content with this Admiral Nat presumably being the actual Admiral Nat, and not some changeling or Hyper-Q doppelganger, motioned for the security to return to their usual posts. He then turned to Elric. "Do you have the medallion with you?" Elric nodded and held up the medallion. "Yes, Admiral. I learned that it is El-Aurian-created, and I discovered a second artifact in an underground city on Leora IV. When both are joined, it acts as a massive amplifier for the medallion's space-time altering effects. What troubles me, is that my Mirror Universe double helped me find it." Admiral Nat walked over and examined it more closely. Vice Admiral Mat'ol seemed content now, especially since a hyper-Q Nat wouldn't be so willing to get that close to an anti-Q medallion, so he walked away. Admiral Nat turned to Elric. "Actually, word has it that the mirror Alliance may be trying to force the Terran Empire to launch an all-out invasion against us, so we'd have no choice but to give in to mirror me's conditions when we meet with them later. Chances are, mirror you probably wants to avoid an all-out Federation-Terran war just as much as we do." "Well, I also don't want an all-out war, so he's doing a really bad job of being the opposite of me," Elric realized. "Anyway, all I have to do is get close enough to that Changeling and execute the artifacts. As for the Mirror Alliance, I'm not sure how to deal with them. But I did notice the artifacts also modified the space around Leora IV. I wonder if they'd have any effect on the weakened-space near Earth Spacedock." Admiral Nat thought, and replied. "Might be worth a shot, although we have other problems. If we take out changeling me, then what happens with the Alliance in our universe? Besides, we think we might have the changeling's motives narrowed down nicely. It might actually be possible to get them to work with us, although I doubt it." The admiral paused for a moment, then continued. "That said, if it's true the Terran Emperor is being controlled by the Infamous, and that he has been turned into an Alliance agent, then working with the Alliance might be our best option, despite how little any of us would like doing that. Besides, we can always deal with our universe's Alliance later." *Chirp!* Zeta, regenerating with his legs in, on Elric's upper arm, appeared to be talking in his sleep. Elric thought about the people he lost to the Na'khul attack; enemies that were agents of a future Alliance. "I don't trust omnipotent beings, especially that shapeshifting mad man who was also willing to put Earth at risk. It's a wonder he isn't able to defeat the Mirror Alliance with his power to begin with. Anyway, if working with them makes a difference, then I'll follow my orders. But I won't turn my back to them." Admiral Nat nodded in agreement. "Me neither, and even so, I want you to keep that medallion handy, and safe, for if and when we need it." Sarah turned to Elric and the admiral. "Is it possible that the Mirror Alliance have anti-Q weapons of their own?" Elric nodded, but wasn't sure if he could even trust himself not to use it. "We could speculate all day about the Mirror Alliance, but we'd need intel to know for sure. Perhaps a mission to that end might suffice. Also, what about Captain Jade? If she's in trouble, we have to find her." Scott replied. "The transporter that beamed her out was evidently a long range one, leading to somewhere out in the Iconian Sector. We already sent a ship to find the source, but it was gone. Put simply, we don't know where she is. The Alliance probably took her, but we can't know for sure." Admiral Nat's descendant (also called Admiral Nat) spoke up. "Before we do anything, I need to have a word with you, about the future." Elric nodded. "The mirror Amaterasu has a long range Dominion transporter on it, although it's not in perfect condition. If we could find out where she is, we could possibly make use of it to reach her." He then turned to Nat's descendant. "Yes, of course. There's a briefing room beneath Quinn's office, right over there, if you'd like." Nat's descendant nodded. "That'll do." "Wait out here, Zeta," Elric said, prompting the android spider to pop up on his arm and jump off onto the wall. Zeta scurried off as Elric went to Spacedock's briefing room. Nat, Nat, and Nat followed, while the others waited outside. --- Briefing Room Elric sat at the long table trying to work out all the groups involved with the Alliance, Mirror Alliance and so on. When the Nats entered, he turned to address them. "What took you so long?" Admiral Nat sat down. "What took us so long? We were away for, like, 10 seconds." The descendant turned to Elric. "Anyway, about the future..." "Before you divulge, I have to ask, doesn't the Temporal Prime Directive apply to all information sharing? Not that I don't want to know. The Na'kuhl were responsible for the deaths of my crew." The descendant nodded. "It usually does; although I think my Starfleet has made an exception in regards to the Alliances. Put simply; we lost. Every one of us, and for all the wrong reasons." The sound of a transporter came to everyone in the room. The energy started to form into a female figure wearing a Starfleet Sierra 1 uniform with red shoulders. "Hi guys! Miss me?" Krystal Jade asked as soon as the transporter let her go. The descendant spoke up. "I'm present Nat's great grandson, an admiral, from the 26th century, and commander of the U.S.S. Firestorm-K. We came back in time to prevent the Mirror Alliance from taking over the galaxy." "Well, I know why the Dominion was interested in me," Krystal spoke up. "As I'm supposed to be The Infamous' successor, I could free the Dominion from being a part of the Armada. I cut a deal with them. They help us out, I do everything I can to get them out of being an active member. Basically give them what they want while still keeping them as an ally." Elric sat up. "I had a taste of an alternate future during my fight with the Na'kuhl. The Amaterasu picked up a moment of their inter-channel chatter leaked from a time-phase effect. They mentioned the Alliance in another era. Captain Jade, if you do this, you could prevent that, but you could also lose your life." Captain Nat shrugged. "Well, what are the alternatives? I mean, would it make sense for someone else to have the Q powers? I mean, it evidently isn't anyone in this room right now..." he said, motioning for Elric to show Krystal the medallion. Elric held up the medallion. "It's El-Aurian, and there's a second, box-shaped artifact that I recovered from an underground city on Leora IV. When both are joined, the space-time effects are greatly amplified. There may still be more pieces to it, but what we have right now appears to be quite powerful. I believe the El-Aurians from ancient times used to successfully deal with omnipotent beings." Captain Nat motioned to Admiral Nat. "So if the changeling Nat isn't the one with the Q powers, than either he just lost his powers willingly, or there's another Nat replacement running around, which would only make matters worse." "You can never have too many Nats," Elric said. "Assuming there isn't a probability threshold." Nat's descendant facepalmed. "Counting me, we already have 3 of us, and the changeling, and Mirror Nat. Do we really need more?" "I might be able to distract Mirror Nat if he has gained some power," Krystal said. "I don't know for how long, but... I'll do what I can. In the meantime we still need to focus on the looming threat." Captain Nat rested a hand on Krystal's shoulder. "If we can get the prime Alliance and that changeling to work with us, we might just stand a chance." Surely enough, the changeling appeared, in the admiral's form (but an older uniform) standing behind Krystal. They poked her on the shoulder. Krystal looked back at the Changeling. "Might want to pick a different form, as... we already got three Nats. Its getting confusing," she said. The changeling shrugged and changed into Krystal, but with a modern Odyssey uniform. "Better?" The changeling then turned and looked at Elric and the medallion, then to Captain Nat. "Get that medallion out of here." Elric stood, gripping the medallion tensely. "Well, here's to working with the Alliance." Elric turned to Admiral Nat and Captain Jade. "I'm going to take the mirror Amaterasu into the weakened space near Spacedock and join this with the other artifact. If I'm right, the resulting energy compulsion will repair the area wrecked by the Borg cube and prevent a wall-breakdown between the other universe and ours. Hopefully."
That really depends on what opposite means. The me in the mirror brushes his teeth every time I do. I'm still rather unsure why he's so obsessive about doing that at the exact same time as me. Maybe he's seriously OCD about the tooth brushing thing and he's there several times a day and I just show up for a couple of them... Thanks!! rbs
Author's notes: These are compiled posts for the Earth Spacedock RP on the Star Trek Online forums. Written in October 2016. Earth Spacedock, Pages 65-66 Captain Elric - Earth Spacedock Elric made his way into the open area of Deck 47 in search of Zeta. He'd only met the android spider, but the arachnid proved to be quite helpful. Zeta had previously revealed he was created by a human cyberneticist, something Elric found quite impressive. *Click!?* Next to a console, Elric found Zeta conversing with a civilian human woman, as best as a non-verbal unit could. "Sorry to interrupt," Elric said. "But we were going to go over those scans aboard the Amaterasu." "Your spider friend here sure has a healthy sense of humour," the woman said. "The name's Claire, by the way. Zeta just chirped me a Klingon opera." Elric smirked as Zeta leapt onto his shoulder. "He sure is full of surprises. Visiting the station?" "My father always said this place was worth the transporter credit. There is nothing like the up-close views of all these ships. We sit in the mud, and reach for the stars." The Captain tilted his head for a moment. "Russian literature? However much you knock at nature's door, she'll never answer you in comprehensible words." "That's quite a memory, my friend," Claire smiled. "Well, I'd better go check out the food court. I hear that borscht is on the menu. Nice to meet you." *Chirp! Nice to meet you* Zeta repeated as he and Elric departed. It was then Elric felt the weight and volume of his grey, Starfleet issue satchel empty. Opening it, he discovered the medallion was missing. "Wait a second." But when he turned to go back to where he came, he found that Claire was gone. *Cccclick!* Elric nodded as he peered into the crowd of miscellaneous people. "That's an understatement. We just got pickpocketed." --- Operations Captain Nat walked over to the window, motioning to a small blue dot near the Firestorm-F. "Jim, raise the shields, NOW!" A moment later, and the Firestorm-F's shields lit up with energy, as the blue dot expanded into a temporal portal. A Mobius Temporal Destroyer, the Chronostorm, emerged, escorted by a squadron of four Paradox Temporal Dreadnoughts. They all locked tractor beams on the Firestorm-F, almost immediately. Admiral Nat ran out and looked out the window in shock. The descendant soon followed and spoke up. "I knew it!" The ship turned towards ESD, its deflector glowing brightly. The changeling fell to the floor, in agony, then stopped looking in pain and got up slowly. Mirror Nat appeared nearby in a flash of light. Admiral Nat couldn't help but notice that Scott had started to walk back in, surprised by Mirror Nat's arrival. The admiral threw his hand up in the air, eyeing to Scott, who ran back out. The admiral moved his focus to his mirror counterpart. "You're early." --- Deck 47 Commander Scott ran out and soon found Elric frantically. "Mirror Nat's stolen the Q powers. Get that medallion to your ship and fuse it with the artifact again, now!" --- Operations Mirror Nat raised a hand, and a sizeable fireball manifested itself. Everyone could already feel the heat emanating from it. "One move and it becomes a full size sun, right here in your precious Earth Spacedock." Admiral Nat stepped back, surprised. Mirror Nat focused his eyes on him. "Oh, yes... I'll destroy this whole station, and your Earth, even." The changeling, unnoticed, pulled out some kind of Iconian device and started working on it. It may have been some kind of transmitter. He pressed one last button on the device and then stood up and started walking towards Mirror Nat. "You know, if you're going to start delivering threats like that, you should consider making sure that nobody is going to show up and take your power from you, hmm?" Mirror Nat deadpanned the changeling. "Like who? Your precious medallion has been lost, hasn't it? You might just have a problem on your hands." An Iconian gateway materialized, and vanished just as quickly. Sarah stepped back, horrified. It was The Infamous, in his typical leather attire. The changeling turned to him, unfazed. "I know you've been trouble up until now, but could you at least be reasonable and take this guy out before he blows up your precious homeworld?" Admiral Nat stepped back as well, bringing a hand to his mouth, shocked. "You..." The Infamous, as it were, looked tired. Empty. Almost as though his soul, what one might even call that, was entirely gone. Something definitely wasn't right about him. But, in any case, he started walking towards Mirror Nat, pulling out a revolver. Mirror Nat glared down at him, backing away, noticing the medallion that the Infamous was wearing. Another anti-Q medallion, safe to say. Mirror Nat put up some kind of shield, separating himself from everyone else. He hovered there, glaring angrily, and spoke up. "Leave." The Paradox dreadnoughts outside soon retreated back into mirror space, evidently going away to fight off another threat. The changeling turned to the descendant. "They've got a full scale war with the Terrans to deal with now. I wouldn't expect them to come back anytime soon." --- Food Court Elric weaved and squeezed through crowds of officers and station visitors, looking for his thief. By the time he reached the Food Court on another deck, he had exhausted his energy. Elric approached the replicator and thought for a moment. "Borscht," he ordered, seconds before he was interrupted. To his left, leaning back in a chair with her feet up on the table, Claire was casually examining the medallion by way of gloating. "Russian literature, huh, Captain? You know, this is a fascinating find. I believe the pictograph on the back of this resembles one found at Leora IV." "What do you think you're doing??" Elric turned to her in shock. "That object is absolutely dangerous and needed to stop a mad man from destroying Earth Spacedock!" Zeta suddenly spoke up. *Click! Chirp! Click!* "He's already been stopped? Well, that was fast," realized Elric. Claire got up and stretched ever so confidently. "Either way, it's mine now. You ever hear the adage, You snooze, you lose? I had it inscribed on my energy card." "How's this for adage?" Elric went for her and attempted to grab the El-Aurian medallion but she moved it out of the way. Claire smirked and took on the challenge, launching a fist for the Captain. Elric leaned back, slightly, beyond its reach and then countered with his own punch. Claire dodged, returned another attack, and Elric dodged. They both sped up their attacks, multi-jabbing, dodging and ducking, with neither landing a touch until Claire kicked Elric in the chest and sent him onto a table. "Ugh! You never answered me!" Elric gasped, attempting to catch his breath. Zeta then leapt off him and flew for Claire, shooting three cables at her. The woman weaved around the three lengths as she ran out, which, instead connected to the floor. Elric got up and ran for her, pushing past a few unsuspecting people and entered the Promenade. There, he accessed a nearby console and emergency site-to-site transported himself a few meters in front of Claire's escape path. She stopped in her tracks, impressed. "No transporter credits required," she observed. Claire tossed him the medallion. Elric caught it, and eyed her. "You're no tourist. You're a treasure hunter." "I was just admiring your little gem, whatever it is. Can't a girl appreciate the finer aspects of ancient archaeology? That, and I'm poor as hell." The Captain scoffed. "Well it's not like you'd find a buyer in Federation space, and now I'm supposed to arrest you for theft." "Oh, you sure do like to play," she smiled, amused, as she was suddenly flanked by two Starfleet security officers. "But, don't you have to run off before another bad guy makes an appearance? They literally flock to you guys in droves." Elric nodded to the officers, prompting them to grab her arms. "I can't argue with that. Anyway, I'll meet you in the Security office after I'm done. You should get a nice view of the cell from there." --- Operations, Command Ring Captain Elric returned to meet Jade and the Nats. Mirror Nat had been scared off, and the Q powers were back on the Firestorm. Elric held up the medallion, a little too late. "Sorry guys. I could have eradicated the Q-power using this and the El-Aurian box currently being scanned on my ship. How'd things go?" "Scared Mirror Nat, probably stopped his invasion entirely, and stole his flagship," Krystal replied in a matter of fact tone. "Shoot. I missed all the fun again. Anything I can help with here? Other than I still plan to mend the weakened space near Earth Spacedock." "Got any ideas on how to dispose of the captured Q powers so that no one can get them again?" Krystal asked. "Black hole? I mean, that's the most obv-- Oh, wait, the El-Aurian artifacts, of course. We could initiate them at the source. Though, if you don't mind my asking, where did the technology come from that is able to contain Q-powers?" "Apparently the Firestorm has some kind of device with that capability. And I had already suggested a Black Hole. Got shot down." Captain Nat replied to Krystal. "Black holes dissipate over time. If they have temporal technology, they could somehow speed up that process, or time travel to when the black hole has dissipated entirely, and claim the then free to claim Q powers." Sarah motioned to the Infamous, who was still standing there, quiet. "Er... are we gonna do something about this guy?" The changeling shrugged, but then turned to Krystal. "You were saying you had no way to contact the Infamous armada. There you go." Sarah facepalmed and then deadpanned the changeling. "How'd you manage that, anyway? I didn't think it'd be possible to control him that easily." The changeling chuckled. "It wasn't. You know how many nanites, futuristic technology, nano-weapons, assorted threats, neural surgeries and all kinds of other stuff it took to even get him to actually listen? Believe me, I still hardly have any control over him..." Krystal approached the person who was supposed to be The Infamous and crossed her arms across her chest. "He seems a little... sedated," she said. Zeta climbed up onto Elric's shoulder as the Captain joined them. The android spider started poking the man repeatedly with one of his eight legs. "What? Zeta, stop that." *Click!?* the spider blurted. "Zeta says he appears to be an empty clone," Elric said. "Anyway, now that I've got the El-Aurian medallion, I'm going to join it with the box on my ship at the centre of weakened space. If what undecipherable data I've got from scans of these alien materials, Leora IV and past behavioural observation is true, it should restruct normal space, and, if the Firestorm-F is in range, the shockwave will annihilate your stored Q-powers." Elric went over to a holo-console and activated the transporter system. --- I.S.S. Amaterasu, Bridge The Captain and crystal spinner-looking android spider beamed onto the vacant command center of the mirror Prometheus-class vessel. He approached the helm, where Zeta leapt off his shoulder and began crawling around. "Zeta, take us into position," Elric ordered as he headed for the turbolift. "I'll join the artifacts." The spider perked in acknowledgement. *Ccchrrrip! Take us into position. Click!* "I know that's not your job," Elric argued. "If Command would give me a crew, I'd order them around. But they blame me for their deaths, so they're not onboard for that. Anyway, just do it." --- I.S.S. Amaterasu, Engineering Elric approached the jury-rigged control deck at the centre of the room where the El-Aurian box was being analyzed by an over-reaching device. He scrolled through the data as the Amaterasu relocated to an area of starship debris. "Here goes nothing," Elric said to himself as he placed the medallion in the box's slot. When nothing happened, he took out the object and moved the scanner over the find. A few moments later he realized the alien make-up was nothing like the box. "It really is nothing. It's a faaake!" --- Earth Spacedock, Operations Admiral Nat walked over to a window, and saw that nothing happened. He waited a moment. Still nothing. He used a comm panel and hailed Elric aboard the Amaterasu. "Well, what are you waiting for?" --- I.S.S. Amaterasu, Bridge Elric returned to the Bridge and answered the hail. "Sorry, Admiral. It looks like the medallion I had was a replica. I know exactly who to investigate." Admiral Nat replied. "Good. If you need any help doing so, let me know. I'll give you whatever resources you need to track it down." "Understood, sir. Thanks. Oh, just a side question, but, now that Mirror Nat has been driven back, are we going to prosecute the changeling for threatening Earth?" The admiral turned to the changeling. "Eventually."
I know a Russian place in Chicago with borscht that can't be beet... Big fan of the spider - Thanks!! rbs
Author's notes: These are compiled posts for the Earth Spacedock RP on the Star Trek Online forums. Written in October 2016. Earth Spacedock, Pages 67-70 Captain Elric - Earth Spacedock Captain Elric returned to Earth Spacedock and made his way to the Security office on the Recreation Deck. Entering through the doors, he found Commander Reeve sitting behind the big desk. "I'd like to talk to the prisoner, please," Elric demanded. Reeve looked up. "The prisoner? Oh, yes," he replied, standing and activating the wall console behind him. "We have a man named Prisoner, a Klingon male civilian with aggressive, honorable, resilient and stubborn traits." He swiped to the next profile. "Then there's a female named Prisoner, an Orion with traits described as seductive, stubborn and unscrupulous." "Whoa, whoa, wait a second," Elric interrupted. "Is the computer just naming all prisoners as Prisoner? Passengers get their names listed. Why not these guys?" The Commander shrugged. "Probably because they're the scum of the galaxy and don't deserve it? That or there's a software glitch caused by that android spider I saw trying to interface with our computer systems earlier." "Dammit, Zeta," Elric cursed even though his companion wasn't even there. He had authorized the arachnid to familiarize itself with the consoles. "Forget it. I'm here for a human woman who was brought in for stealing at the Food Court today." Reeve snapped his fingers. "Ah, yes, Claire. Yeah, she completely escaped. Didn't even bother to gloat. Don't worry, we have security teams sweeping Spacedock." "Of course she did," the Captain sighed. He should have expected nothing less. "Thanks anyway." --- Food Court Instead, Elric went to get something to eat. It had been a while, and he was sure he replicated something earlier before he was interrupted. "Borscht." "Looking for the archaeologist?" came the sly, side-comment from a nearby Rigelian civilian eating at a nearby table. "The name's Vitath. I just met and spoke with her before she left here. She said she was in trouble." Elric turned to her. "Yeah, she stole a powerful El-Aurian medallion during a pop-up crisis." "No, not with you. With some other people. A group of Caitians. She was trying to dodge them before she would flee the station. Said they would hurt her." The Captain asked, "Where'd she go?" "Club 47," Vitath replied. Then she interrupted his exit. "Be good to her, Captain. She's in a lot of pain." --- Club 47 Krystal made her way to Club 47, ordered a drink, and just made her way over to the lounge that overlooked Earth. She needed some time to relax before anything else happened. "Well... its done..." she said to herself before taking a drink. "The question is... am I even ready for all this?" Elric searched Club 47 with no luck thus far. He took a stroll to the lounge to take a break and overlook Earth, after which he noticed Captain Jade. "Oh, sorry to interrupt. I didn't see you there. Everything okay?" "Just got a lot on my mind," Krystal replied before taking a drink. Elric sighed. "Same here. I lost my entire crew, and now I'm losing this medallion. I just hope I don't cost any more lives." Krystal looked over at Elric, slightly concerned. "Starfleet officially doesn't blame me for their loss in that battle with the Na'kuhl. Incident reviews cleared me, but I just can't help but think I could have executed things differently. If only I had known their strategy, or perfected my own. Anyway, I'm going on. My apologies." Krystal put a hand on Elric's shoulder. "Nobody's perfect," she said. "You did what you could." Elric thought about it. "Maybe you're right. I suppose there's only so much one person can do in a situation, even if he'd wish he could do more." Krystal gave Elric a friendly smile. "That's all anyone can do," she said. "Try your best at the time." Jim walked into Club 47, and looked around. He spotted Krystal and Elric, then made a bee-line for them, then sat down, seemingly confused, shocked, and even angry all at once; practically a bomb just waiting to go off. "Admiral Nat just arrested Scott for mutiny and the destruction of the U.S.S. Sally." "Oi vey..." Krystal sighed. Everyone nearby suddenly heard the purr of a Tribble close by. Jim looked around, and saw faces looking towards him. He looked down, and spotted a Tribble by his feet. He picked it up and examined it more closely. He turned it, as a Borg implant on the furry creature would become apparent to Krystal. Krystal stood up slowly. "Captain... set that thing on a table and step away," she said. Jim stopped for a moment, then jumped backward, dropping it as additional implants started appearing on the Tribble. "It's being assimilated? How?" He looked up, and noticed a light flickering behind Krystal. His combadge soon chirped. He tapped it in reply. "Dennison here." "Sek here, checking the Firestorm over for any anomalies. We've found a light being assimilated by Borg technology. We think there may be some Borg nanoprobes scattered about the ship. We're already working to remove them, but it may take a little while, so we've shut down main power until we fine them all." Jim looked a little nervous, and replied. "We've found a Tribble on ESD that's in the middle of being assimilated. It's station-wide." Elric took out his phaser and aimed it at the tribble. "Mirror Nat left us a going away present?" "With our luck... probably," Krystal replied before tapping her commbadge and reporting the situation. Elric fired on the tribble, vaporizing it. "Sorry you had to see that," he quipped. "What do we have to combat the nanoprobes? Omicron radiation?" Sek replied over the comms. "Yes, but I'd seriously advise against using that on the station as a whole, unless you want to kill everyone on board, so we'll have to find and destroy the nanoprobes one by one, and that could take awhile." Jim sighed. "Alright then. Get everyone on the Firestorm working on that, and I'll take care of things here." He then contacted Admiral Nat. "What if we modified our weapons to fire a condensed burst of omicron particles?" Elric suggested. "As a precaution, a medical team could disperse Spacedock with inoculations for everyone." Jim nodded. "That might work." "There may be a reserve of omicorn particles in Spacedock's lower level science labs. As for us, if we get infected by nanoprobes, we may need an injection of Task Force Omega's immunosupport nanites. Though, I'm not sure Spacedock has any of those." Admiral Nat's voice came over Jim's combadge. "We carry those on the Mephiles. I'll have a supply beamed over." "I'll head down to Deck 65 and prep the particles into phaser rifle attachments," Elric added. Jim nodded. "I'll get the omega hypos then, and meet you there." He then headed for the transporter room. --- Earth Spacedock Elric nodded to Jade and then left Club 47 for the main concourse. Zeta caught up with him and attached to his upper arm as he approached the turbolifts which did not open. "Damn, lockdown procedures." He then went to a section and accessed a Jeffery's tube, making his way down. "Just another day in Starfleet..." Krystal sighed as she followed. Jim and a group of Omega Operatives caught up and followed as well, taking all the Omega immunosupport nanites and the extra Omega personal shield units with them. Elric climbed down the ladder, passing through floor-door after door as he descended the decks. He stopped at Deck 50 to catch his breath. When he was joined by the others, he snapped his fingers. "Ah, I forgot about the anti-omicron inoculations that need to be prepped and distributed." Jim turned to one of the Omega Operatives, and after a moment, the operative nodded. "We got it covered." Elric noticed the extra equipment. "You guys really come prepared. Anything for us?" One of the operatives passed Elric and Krystal each an Omega personal shield unit, and a couple of hypos containing the Omega Force immunosupport nanites. Jim then pulled out a couple extra Omega rifles, and handed those one each to Elric and Krystal. "Omega Force Antiproton Autocarbine rifles." He then passed them each a headset. "Omega Force designed, naturally. We like to come prepared alright." The Captain took the rifle, headset and put on the shield unit. "Fascinating. Thanks for these. We can get set up right in the lab." And then Zeta chirped, prompting Elric to take out his tricorder. "Huh. Something strange about Deck 65. I'm not reading anything down there. Possibly being blocked by a dampening field." Jim stopped, almost going white. "They may have assimilated humanoids. If these are in fact a gift from Mirror Nat, then they're probably Mirror Borg, too. They're a hell of a lot more dangerous than our Borg." He turned to Krystal, then back to Elric. "Nobody goes anywhere without a couple other guys as support. Understood?" Krystal looked over the carbine. "Hope you guys fixed the issue the older models had with the Borg adapting faster than against a MACO rifle," she said. "All I have to say is the Borg sound Sweedish," Elric added. "Anyway, you guys up to stepping into the lion's den?" "I'm a Starfleet Officer," Krystal replied. "Its kinda our thing." Elric swung the rifle over his back and began climbing down to Deck 65. When he got there, inside another open jeffery's tube area, he tried to scan a locked door. The Omega Operatives would surely have a fix for this, but what was behind the door was the mystery. One of the operatives turned to Elric. "We have a fix for this, naturally." The operative turned to Jim. Jim nodded in response as one of the operatives closed the door above after Krystal came through, and then another operative blasted the door open, causing swarms of mechanized green air to come pouring in. One of the operatives shrugged. "Yep, they're airborne alright. If it weren't for these shields, Elric, Krystal, and Jim would all be Borg now." Jim sighed. "Mirror Borg, put simply, are faster than you, and they shoot the moment they see you, regardless of your apparent intentions. Got it?" Krystal jumped down and scanning the area. Jim and the operatives followed and started keeping watch for Borg. Jim looked at another closed door, and scanned it. "This door opens into a corridor with several doors to labs throughout it. We need to get to Science Lab 23." Elric paused, hearing a multitude of strange, mechanized buzzing sounds from behind the locked door. "Friends of yours?" Jim scanned. "Yep, they're old friends alright." Soon, sparks started flying out of the door, and the door opened. Two, large, burly looking Borg drones stood there. Clearly, the mirror Borg preferred adding armor and strength over reducing biological material. The drones immediately started walking towards the group, unusually quickly. The Omega Operatives shot them down. Jim sighed. "No wonder they're all down here. They want to take control of main power so they can contact the other mirror Borg." The group approached Science Lab 23 and Elric stepped into the door's humanoid recognition sensor. The door swished open, revealing a lab full of drones standing and waiting for instructions. These were the science officers working down here. Were all the labs full of drones? As soon as they noticed the open door, the drones opened fire. Elric knelt down, allowing someone else to fire from above him. He pulled up his rifle and shot drone after drone with antiproton bolt bursts. One drone, moving fast toward them was hit in the chest and sent back into another drone. Elric fired the second setting on his rifle, engaging the full auto sweep which momentarily rapid-fired more bursts at incoming Borg. Jim and the operatives began firing on the drones, taking them all down. Suddenly, the lights went out. Jim and the Omega Operatives didn't appear to be particularly affected, as their helmets presumably had built-in night vision of some kind. Jim turned to Elric. "Well, they've got main power alright. Need a light?" "Yes, thank you," Elric replied as he went over to the advanced storage dispenser and programmed it. "We may still need this ability to purge our computer systems." He then went over to the replicator and punched in a code initiating the production of empty housing cells. "Let's scout and secure the entire deck. Take out all drones here. Also need confirmation of the extent of power loss. Is it just this section of Spacedock?" Admiral Nat's voice came over the comms. "It's station wide, evidently, as we've lost contact with the station personnel." Elric began infusing the omicron dispensaries with the cells. "Halfway there." A group of drones then attempted to feed into the dark room. Elric finished and pulled out his rifle. He listened carefully for the drones and rapid-fired until they were out. Jim sighed. "Maybe they should've installed anti-Borg devices rather than anti-Undine ones. Wait. Could we modify the existing devices to repel mirror Borg back to the mirror universe?" "A report I read from Commander Reeve said they were designed to be phased, undetectable and inaccessible. Another report I read from Captain Aeris said they were somehow tampered with remotely using Undine technology by an Undine scientist in Fluidic space," Elric recalled. "If they're anything, they're a mystery." He attached an omicron cell to his rifle and shot a nearby wall console with a steady stream of condensed omicron energy. With the nanoprobes cleaned out of it, he approached it and came close enough that his shield engulfed it. "Zeta, can you tap into our backup systems and get internal sensors on this deck online?" he asked. The spider launched a cable and one of its legs into the dead console and attempted. *Click!? Chhhirrp, click, click!* "I'll take that as a 'no'," He glanced to the side in shock. "He's saying the power loss is coming from nanoprobes infecting the Main Reactor." Elric watched as Zeta unattached himself. "It would take too long to climb down to that section." Jim sighed. "So our only choice is to attack the mirror Borg and find a way to take them out." "Or we find the one thing that's controlling them. Like how Picard killed the Queen on the Enterprise and the surrounding Borg died from some kind of feedback," Krystal spoke up. Jim sighed. "The central plexus." Elric nodded. "I was thinking the same thing. If what Zeta says is right, the concentration of nanoprobes at the Main Reactor over anywhere else on the station indicates that the Borg are centralizing their technology there. There may be a faster way down into the bowels of Spacedock if we scale the vertical cargo tube in Section 8. It's down a few more corridors." He packed the extra omicron cells in a satchel and slung it over his shoulder. Then he readied his rifle and aimed it, exiting Science Lab 23, out into the hallways. As he passed the other labs, he found the doors to Science Lab 12 struggling to open and damaged. Curious, he kicked the opening in the door and caused it to continue its opening procedure. Inside the lab were bodies of failed assimilations. Starfleet officers and experts piled into the place like garbage. Shocked and appalled, Elric knelt down and took the pulse of one of the grey-skinned humans. "He's dead, Jim."
"We've come too late, he's dead Jim, dead Jim, dead..." Now you have to add the rest of the song in... Thanks!! rbs
Author's notes: This was written in October 2016, as part of the Star Trek Online forums Unofficial Literary Challenge #28. Unofficial Literary Challenge #28: Prompt #1: Your Captain is forced to make a life or death decision for someone else. Explore the moral quandaries and complications that this decision could lead to. Unofficial Literary Challenge #28 Life or Death The Kurak-class battlecruiser I.K.S. Baetal sat out in deep space, while a massive party was being held in its cramped Messhall. Captain Sigon walked over to his reptilian-like tactical officer and head-butted him. "Yaaarrghh! You are the Gorn. Am I right? You are the Gorn!" Sigon chanted, completely drunk. Gozer grasped his head in minor pain. "That wassss not necessary, Captain." "Oh, you need to lighten up, Commander," suggested Sigon. "We have done the impossible: Averted permanent tribblefication, maintained the annual invasion of Raatooras, wrecked the Federation starship Tsunami, and established pants-free Fridays." Tenough walked over. "Sir, that last one is not very Klingon to partake in." "Exactly! We are the ultimate, out-of-norm ship that every Warrior wants to be a part of. I don't even know what class this vessel is, but who cares!" Sigon preached. Gozer nodded. "Very well, Captain. But be forewarned that boassssting leads to immediate comeuppance in this timeline, which many have coined as the Prime Timeline." SMASH! Suddenly, a Klingon at the other end of the Messhall broke in from the ceiling vent and began speed kneeing, kicking and force-palming all the other drunk crew out into unconsciousness. "What in the Unbearable Gardens of Grethor is going on??" Sigon attempted to squint his vision so he could see who it was. "Wait a second. That is Captain Menchez!" The attacking Klingon took out his disruptor and shot Gozer and Tenough down, prompting Sigon to dive behind a table. Menchez then ran out the Messhall to continue his work. --- Menchez made his way down the corridors and was confronted by Lu'Kava. She took out a Klingon pain stick and launched a close range jab at the Captain. "You think you can just take on the crew of the Baetal and get away with it?? We once feasted on 50 targ in one night!" she claimed a second before Menchez caught her extended arm and countered with a kick and a knee. "Next-day lunches were obliterated!" The Captain then double punched her, took out his mek'leth and cut the pain stick in half. "This crew gets away with far too much to begin with. You've all gotten lazy and entitled. I heard you have a trained Fek'Ihri Hordling that sharpens all your teeth??" "How dare you say words and things, and stuff!? I'd defend us further if I wasn't so full of gagh!" she fired a forced-palm toward his head, but he moved slightly to the left, spun in full reverse-circle and elbowed her out in her ridges. --- The Klingon infiltrator entered the Bridge and fired his disruptor into an attacking Bekk Tars. The Bekk was sent over a console and Sigon entered the Bridge completely out of breath. "Why... are... you........ doing this??" Sigon panted. "Just.... one second...." Menchez rolled his eyes. "I told your security officer why. Ugh. This is what I hate about take-overs. You have to explain yourself again and again." "Glorified baktag! You think we are a failure as a Klingon crew, don't you? That all we do is hold celebrations??" The older Klingon nodded. "Precisely! I am taking over command of this ship as a result. Do not even think about performing an induction ceremony." "yIntagh! I would fight you to the death, but I am way too inebriated and, unlike other, more foolish Klingons, I do not engage in technical combat while drunk." Menchez nodded. "It is our version of Earth's historic anti-'drinking and driving' initiatives. I commend you for safe Klingoning. In the meantime, I do not plan to remain in command of your ship. I am merely here for a mission to honorable death." "Hu'tegh!? You lost your old vessel and crew in shame?? It just seems the most likely reason." He took a pained breath. "Indeed. And now I risk my House being dishonored and dismantled for my actions." He shook his head in regret. "I should have never told my crew to go into that cave on Hanon IV; the same cave Neelix ordered Lieutenant Hogan to die in." "I never realized the extent of your dishonor!" Sigon said in shock. "Not to mention, the time and volume of group-traffic it would take to complete such a task." Captain Menchez approached the helm and altered course. "Several Kazon and a Cardassian woman who is a Seska-wannabe took my ship and never looked back. I am now in pursuit of them, and will destroy them through infiltration. The Baetal was my practice-run." The Baetal then dropped warp and confronted two Kazon Raiders, a Cruiser and a Klingon Vor'cha-class vessel. "Kazon-Rokka, this is the Captain of that ship you stole. You know, the one with the fuzzy targ hanging from the view screen? Prepare to be destroyed for your insolence!" hailed Menchez. Then he turned to Sigon before leaving the Bridge. "Hold them off while I do the thing. You know. The thing." Sigon gawked. "Don't be a fool, Menchez! You don't have die to reclaim your honor; just get cut a little; like across the face or something. The Council would be satisfied either way." "I am the leader of this Sect," came the hail of the Cardassian woman. "You may call me SesKahn." Captain Sigon double-taked. "Why?? Why are you trying so hard to be a known villain?" "I am an augment, here to fill a void. The first Cardassian Kazon leader was an inspiration to Cardassian women everywhere. It's up to me to maintain her legacy! Are you saying you are against Cardassian women-augments having power?" The Klingon held up, defensively. "No! I'm not saying that. Never mind. Let's just fight already. But, it is not motivated by speciest-sexism. In fact, just take my ship." "Fool! You have to stand up for yourself too! Klingon men should have equal self-worth! Learn from my genetically engineered example!" Gozer and Tenough struggled onto the Bridge, with smoking disruptor blasts in them, as the screen cut out. Sigon turned to them. "Take your stations, open fire, and hold the line!" "The line of one, sssir?" Gozer asked. The commanding officer waved him off. "Yes, the line of one. Do you want another head-butt from me? Because I will do that." --- A minute later, Captain Sigon transported onto the Vor'cha-class starship I.K.S. B'Cnah. With the ship now under attack, he followed a trail of bloodied Kazon to the Bridge. There, Menchez was pinned to the floor by five Tsunkatse Falchion swords, their blades sinking into him from five Kazon-Rokka scavengers. "Death," coughed Menchez, "Shall be mine. Tell my wife she was a horrible wife. She'll take it as a compliment. It's a thing we do. Not sure how it will sound coming from you though." Sigon took out his disruptor and shot, five times, each Kazon down. He then turned to SesKahn and aimed for her. "No! I haven't even done any Shakespeare quotes yet! What was that one? Oh yeah. 'From Hell's heart, I stab at thee!'" she accessed a console and transported herself out. The other Kazon ships suddenly turned to the Vor'cha-class attack cruiser and opened fire. "You fool! I was to die! Now I must deal with the consequences of being alive!?" Menchez argued as he got up and pulled the swords out of him. "Not only that, but this vessel is far beyond repair. The fuzzy targ are inoperable!" Sigon shook his head. "SesKahn taught me to stay in the game, and so did you. Pretty much anyone could have taught me that, but the lesson remains. You must do the same, despite the Empire's absurd actions. They will still grant you another ship, though, just so they have you around to direct their gloating." "I hate it when they do that! Also, I'm going to have to deal with the dismantling of my House and sooo many claims of dishonor," Menchez groaned, suddenly realizing. "It is more going to be annoying than anything else. Mortifying, if that 'anything else' was to be defined further." He went over to operations control, beamed Sigon back to the Baetal, and both ships turned and fired upon the Kazon ships. After what seemed like forever, one of the Kazon Raiders exploded and the two other ships turned and warped out of there. --- Sigon sat in his chair and watched as the completely-ruined Klingon ship turned and warped for the Jenolan Dyson Sphere. "Do you think he'll make it without exsssploding, sir?" Gozer asked. The Captain shook his head. "I hope not! Because then I will have to live with what I just did. This is why Klingons should not drink and fight! Let this be a lesson to you kids at home." "Who are you talking to, Captain?" Tenough asked. Sigon threw up his arms. "I don't know! That's the problem! You have the Bridge. I'm going to soak in a targ bath with Bolian scented candles for two hours."
One of many favorite quotes from this entry... Big fan of Sigon mugging the camera at the end. Thanks!! rbs
Author's notes: These are compiled posts for the Earth Spacedock RP on the Star Trek Online forums. Written in October 2016. Earth Spacedock, Pages 70-72 Elric, Jim & Krystal - Earth Spacedock Jim deadpanned Elric. "Did all my existence only happen so you could make that joke?" Krystal couldn't help herself, and laughed a bit. "Well... it had to be done one of these days," she said. Elric smirked, but before he could respond they heard a moaning sound from within the laid out bodies. The Captain stood up and walked over. Before him was a grey skinned human. Elric recognized him. "Professor Raven?" he said shocked. The older man was half assimilated, and appeared nearly out of it. His lips dry, patches of technology in his temple and tubes feeding around his shoulder. Consciousness was scarce. "It's Elric," the Captain said to him as he lifted the man's head off the ground. "Do you remember me?" Raven groaned. The horrors he'd been through still fresh in his mind. "Just... just kill me," he said to the Borg. "Just do it. Do it!" And then he caught Elric's face. "You... What are you doing here?" "I could ask you the same thing, Professor," Elric replied, relieved. "I thought you retired?" The man was helped into a sitting position. "You can never keep an old treasure hunter down. I pulled favours to come here and examine an artifact I suspected was 8th century Metron. Your science officers were just making headway when... the... No!" He seemed to recede into shock. "Resistance is futile." "Snap out of it!" Elric searched his pack for an immunosupport nanite hypo and injected Raven with it. "You're lucky you were rejected by the Mirror Borg." After a moment, he seemed to calm down, but Elric wasn't sure if it would be enough. *Click!?* Zeta blurted in defiance. "He's going to be fine, Zeta," Elric argued, getting the older man to his feet. "We have to take him with us and we have to keep moving." Krystal tightened her grip on her weapon but chose not to say anything. The Omega Operatives kept watch, but didn't say much either. Suddenly, a pair of drones started coming down a corridor towards them. The Omegas shot them down. Then, another drone. Then another. In the corridor, Elric pulled Raven behind the Omega Operatives with one arm and fired his rifle passed them with the other. He then turned to Raven who seemed to be saying something in a daze. "There can't be.... They can't be here," he said to no one in particular. Elric tried to calm him. "Don't worry, Professor. There's a medical bay on the Engineering decks. As soon as we get you down there, you'll be alright." A few Borg suddenly came up from behind the group. Elric turned his aim and fired into the incoming drones several times. "Marco... Intelligence, said the acquired... devices would send both Undine and Borg... He said both," Raven gritted in between his pain. "They can't be.... Impossible--" The Captain looked at him. "What are you saying?" "We are the Borg," Raven finished as his eyes suddenly lit up. Elric shot a rear-attacking drone, point-blank, in its head, that had suddenly reached them. He then went back into his bag and injected Raven with another hypospray. "The Omega Ops have this, Professor. They're the best of the best." Jim turned to Raven. "Believe me, we've seen worse." "It's worse," Krystal growled as she joined the fight. The Omegas kept on shooting. Soon, stronger looking drones were joining the fight in place of their weaker cousins. Elric dodged an energy pulse and fired antiproton bolt bursts out of his autocarbine rifle at the drones in front of the group. "You Omegas are experts at this, right??" Elric said, fearfully, as the feeling of impending Mirror Borg doubled upon them. Several drones were taken out ahead of them by Elric, but when he turned to check the approaching group from behind, they were right at their feet. A large drone punched through Elric's personal shield and grabbed his firing wrist. Another two grabbed Professor Raven, who was already on the floor, and dragged him off into an indiscernible abyss of horror. "Professor!?" Elric yelled in futile. The menacing drone, now within Elric's shield bubble, attempted to shoot tubules into Elric's throat, but Zeta intercepted them in mid-flight with his own two cables. The spider then crawled onto the drone and began working its pointy spider-appendages to deactivate its shoulder motor systems from the drone's exoskeleton. The assimilation arm limped dead and Elric force-palmed the drone in its chest, sending it out of his shield, and into another two incoming drones. Zeta leapt back onto Elric's arm, sucked in his own cables, and the Captain aimed and fired his full auto sweep mode. Rapid antiproton bolt bursts were heavily pumped out into every single close-range drone in front of him. A pile of bodies began to build before his final shot was adapted. Jim shouted. "They're adapted!" The Omegas all pressed a button on their rifles, remodulating them automatically, and resumed firing on the incoming Borg. Jim turned to one of the operatives. "We need to get out of here, but need a plan! Bring up a shield dome, would you?" The operative nodded and pressed a button on his wrist gauntlet control panel, generating an orange shield dome around the group, repelling the Borg and deflecting their attacks. Jim turned to Elric and Krystal. "Where do we go now?" Still unable to process how he lost his old teacher and friend, Elric somehow made out the question directed toward him amidst all the chaos. "The large vertical cargo tube at Section 8 is just around the corner." Jim sighed. "We don't have enough climbing gear. Can we disable the gravity? Admiral, you mind blowing something up for us?" In a couple moments, a small explosion rocked ESD, dealing minor damage, and taking the gravity generators offline. Stuff started floating around. The Omegas pressed a button on their control panels, activating their magnetic boots and sticking to the floor. Jim turned to Elric and Krystal. "Take a hand, and lets go." The Borg, naturally, had magnetic feet of their own and were already ready for the group as the shield dome dissipated on it's own. Krystal grabbed on to the closest available person. "Well. Wasn't expecting to go Zero G." A couple Omega operatives pulled out a pair of cables, attached them to the back of other couple operative's armor, and then passed the other end of the said cables (with a clip on the end) to Elric and Krystal each. Elric clipped on, trying to balance himself. In a matter of seconds he was able to get his bearings. But a part of him wanted to go back for Raven. What were the Mirror Borg up to by taking him again? "I'm on," Elric reported. The Omegas blasted a path through the Borg, moving to the transport shaft Elric directed them to. As the group entered the shaft and began moving downward through the silent tunnel, Elric couldn't help but think about Raven. "He's really gone, isn't he? You know, at the Academy, the Professor was one of the toughest teachers in Alien Anthropology and Exo-History. For some reason he never went easy on me, and now I wonder if it was because he actually believed in me. It wouldn't be until years later he'd join me in my first expedition to Epsilon Hydra VII. The things I discovered there, and learning he wasn't this scary monster, that he was just as normal as any one of us..." Elric paused. The group was now passing the first cargo doors for one of the many decks that surrounded the Main Reactor. The central deck, where the nanoprobes were most concentrated, was where the central plexus was being held. Getting through the large central doors without main power wouldn't be easy. Jim turned to Elric. "Any ideas to open those doors? Should we blast them open?" "Sounds doable. I defer to your judgement, Captain, and any input from Captain Jade. But we'll probably need protection from a blast." One of the Omega Operatives started preparing a shield generator. As the giant shield went up around the floating group, Elric took a moment to check on Zeta to make sure he was okay. "How you holding up?" *CCcclick! Click, click, holding up.* Elric noticed something strange on the android spider. An erroneous circuit appeared on his outer body. "Zeta, run diagnostics. Do you detect anything?" *Click, click, chirp.* He sighed, taking out one of the omicron cells he manufactured earlier. "A nanoprobe. Just one, huh? Can you take one of these?" *Chirp!* The spider launched a cable and attached it to the side of the cell. A few seconds later, Zeta fried the external circuit. *Click!* "That was a close one," Elric said relieved. "Stay safe, buddy." "Never seen anything like that," Krystal said to Elric. Jim shook his head and turned to the Omegas. "Plant some charges, would you?" A couple of the operatives space jumped to the doors and started planting spatial charges. Elric nodded at Krystal. "Yeah, he's closer to a crystal spinner, which, I believe, whoever created him was going for." "And I have no idea what that is either," Krystal pointed out. Jim sighed. "It's a spider?" "Except you can't step on this one," Elric quipped. Jim pulled out his tricorder and pressed a button on it dramatically, triggering the explosion and blasting the doors open. After their shields were rained upon by debris, the floating group could then see into the main corridor, finding Mirror Borg technology plastered to the walls, floor and ceilings. Mirror Borg drones were seconds away from reacting to the blast and, beyond the drones, into the distance that reached the end of the main corridor, was the large Engineering open area that housed a central plexus positioned against Spacedock's reactor. Elric looked concerned. "Well... shtako..." Krystal deadpanned. Jim glanced over at the Borg. "This'll complicate things." "If only these were our universe's Borg," Elric said, missing the tactical anonymity. Jim chuckled as he motioned the Omegas to start firing. "I know." He looked around to watch for any surprises from other directions. Nothing from below. He looked up, and saw swarms of robotic Borg spiders running down the walls towards them. He started firing at them. "We were followed!" "I didn't even know the Borg had those?" Elric said as he unclipped himself and pushed off into the corridor for zero-G combat. If he had any explosives, he would have used them, but he wasn't nearly as equipped as the Omegas. As Elric moved through the corridor, he fired antiproton bolt bursts left and right at passing drones until he was stopped by the palm of another drone in mid-flight. Elric rotated himself, upright, aimed and fired several bolts into the Borg, close-range, until it was knocked off its magnetized bearings and off into the open area. Elric was way ahead of his team, as he corrected his backward movement back to forward and entered the Main Reactor control area. Jim and the Omegas quickly followed, flying over to the corridor and then remagnetizing themselves down, tossing a grenade through zero-G into the larger cluster of them, blasting them away. The Omegas then started walking towards the Main Reactor control area, blasting away the drones Elric left behind. "I softened them up for you, by the way," Elric commented, in hopes of adding that to the record. The other drone he had thrown in there suddenly came flying toward him as the Borg spiders caught up and began to scatter at Jim's and the Omega Operative's magnetized feet. Elric rotated himself into a kick but his leg was caught by the incoming drone. The two flew back into a wall, with Elric taking the brunt of the force through his back. Catching the thrusting assimilation arm of the drone with one hand, Elric then launched a counter attack, spinning himself backward so that his other elbow impacted across the drone's face. The heavy-hit knocked it out and Elric spun again and kicked the unconscious body down the previously exploded corridor. He then looked down, passed his floating feet, at the spiders all over the floor. Suddenly, a robotic arm buzzed passed Elric, catching his eye and, to Elric's left, he could see several Borg robotic arms coming from all over the room, working and piecing together a bulkier and larger drone; the likes of which he'd never seen. The large drone continued working, operating a console, while the room added features to him like it was nothing. As the drone turned, Elric could see that it was Professor Raven. The Omega Operatives turned to Jim, and he nodded. They all deactivated their magnetic boots and floated upwards, firing their rifles on full spread, blasting robot spider after robot spider until they were all destroyed. Jim turned to the larger drone, and noticed the resemblance. "Well, this is disappointing. He's definitely too far gone now. Arm your T116-Bs, aim, and fire on my command." The Omegas pulled out their T116-Bs and aimed at Raven of Borg, waiting for Jim's order. "Wait!" Elric held up his hand as he floated over. The horror of seeing Raven in a monstrous state was heart-wrenching and nearly impossible to comprehend. "We can't fire that close to the Reactor!" Elric reported. "Not to mention we can still liberate him if we hit him with a balanced dosage of my rifle's condensed omicron beam and immunosupport hypos. He's not too far gone. He can't be. He's much stronger than that." "Its a little late to think about that right now!" Krystal yelled. "So unless you want to join him fire already!" Jim shouted back. "It won't work! We fought a drone of this size before; he's got some kind of omicron radiation resistant shielding!" Elric took aim of Raven with his rifle. "Then we remove the shielding, enough to get an omicron beam through. You guys are the Borg experts but yet you let Raven get taken back on Deck 65. Where was your experience then??" The increasingly growing Raven drone activated a holo screen which was monitoring Spacedock's progress in connecting with the Borg of this universe. The connectivity was at 90%. As Raven moved to take a position between the group and the central plexus, two robotic arms quickly began manufacturing a wrist-mounted cannon upon his left arm. The cannon wasn't even finished being built, but the undead Professor was already aiming and loading its upcoming energy discharge. "Lower your weapons and surrender your lives. We will add your Borg's biological and technological collective to our own. Your Borg will adapt to us." Jim screamed. "We can't. Mirror Borg are way too powerful, so if he lives, he'll remember the mirror Borg nature enough for the prime Borg to want to assimilate him for the information to become way too powerful for us to deal with. We have to destroy him!" The Omegas crouched, still aiming at Raven of Borg. Jim glared at Elric. "We have no choice." Krystal growled and just lobbed a plasma grenade at the Plexus itself while she still had an opening. Borg shielding pulsed as the grenade collided with the plasma grenade. The blast knocked Jim away and created an expanded, zero-g cloud of plasma fire, headed for the group. The Plexus remained undamaged, as Raven moved over to block their view of the plexus. Jim retreated back to the other Omegas and aimed his rifle at Raven of Borg. He glanced at the holoscreen, which read 99%. "No! That's it, take out that plexus, and anything in the way, with everything we've got!" The Omegas aimed their rifles at Raven, and went to pull the trigger. Suddenly, the large drone stopped moving, losing magnetism, and the surrounding Borg technology went dark and even more quiet. One of the Omegas turned to Jim. "Sir?" Jim looked over at the connectivity level: 100%. Jim sighed. "Really?" Admiral Nat's voice came over the comms. "Turns out some kind of pulse went off and disabled all the Borg the moment they connected with the outside Borg. Apparently somebody installed devices in that general area, which are apparently made to not only repel Undine like they did before, but disable Borg, too, at least the collective connected kind. They must have initially assumed the mirror Borg were all liberated since they weren't linked to any outside Borg, but their connecting to the Borg outside set the devices off." Jim sighed. "Just how disabled are they?" Admiral Nat replied. "Completely. Every single bit of Borg tech has been knocked offline across ESD, so the Borg tech that's still there is non-functional. You might as well come back up and let Spacedock's engineers handle them at this point." A forcefield materialized around the cloud of high energy plasma, containing it just moments before it hit the main reactor. Nat continued. "Of course, that's the good news. There's bad news, too." Elric breathed a sigh of relief. It was like a heavy weight had been lifted, but the state of the giant Borg that was Raven remained in front of them. "The Professor did mention his friend Marco from Intelligence. That there were devices which were 'acquired' from somewhere. We should probably find a way to access them and learn more about them." Then he glanced over. "What's the bad news?" The admiral replied. "Various liberated Borg crew members have been affected, but should be fine. It's the still-alive mirror Borg drones we need to worry about. We can't just beam them to a sickbay because there's too much interference from the surrounding Borg tech. We'll have to tag the drones individually, and if we take too long, they'll probably die." Elric nodded. "Perhaps we should split up and seek out these drones and hit them with transporter tags." Jim nodded. "Sounds good." He motioned for the Omegas to go ahead, and started tracking down and tagging drones himself. Before leaving, Elric turned to examine Professor Raven once more. He slowly moved around to the over-armoured Borg drone to find the grey-skinned man breathing with confused eyes forward. As the Captain got right up to the Professor, he could swear the man was still somewhere inside the massive conglomeration of horror. "Professor," Elric said on the off-chance he'd actually reply. Captain Elric reached his left arm up to pull Raven's extended, aiming, canon-arm down when three assimilation tubules suddenly shot out Raven's arm and pierced Elric's arm. Pulling away immediately, Elric ripped the tubules out in shock and agony. "Ugh!!" He then pulled his sleeve up and exercised his hand to flex his forearm. After a moment, he sighed. "Must've been an automated reflex. I'm fine, though. Like you guys said, the nanoprobes are offline now." Elric took a hypospray out of his satchel and injected himself just be safe. He gave Raven a discontented, confused look. "Still. Better get checked out when we get out of here," Krystal said. Captain Elric agreed. "Will do," he said. He then left the Main Reactor area for the corridors to begin tagging drones.
Author's notes: These are compiled posts for the Earth Spacedock RP on the Star Trek Online forums. Written in October 2016. Earth Spacedock, Pages 73-74 Captain Elric - Earth Spacedock Elric floated through the many, still dark, Engineering decks aboard Spacedock, firing isolinear tag after tag from a pistol into drone after drone. Each drooling, unaware Borg straggler, on the brink of death, were quickly transported away to the Infirmary and by the time Elric reached Gravity Control he was out of darts. There, in the half-darkened room, he found Claire trying to get a console online. "Don't move!" Elric said, taking out his autocarbine rifle and aiming it. Claire turned around in shock, but was relieved when she saw who it was. "Oh, it's you. I thought you were more Borg, or, even worse..." she trailed. "Would you help me get this console going?" "That is Starfleet technology, and you were under arrest for stealing," Elric recanted. The woman nodded. "Oh, you were cute to try, Captain. But I have bigger problems, and they were no better helped by the station's main power going down." "Like what? And where is the real medallion?" he pressed. Claire shook her head while she worked. "What are you talking about? I gave it back to you," she replied, seconds before pausing. "Unless they took it?" Then she shook her head in disbelief. "Those damn hair-hacks," Claire cursed before turning to address Elric. "I showed it to them for just a second, trying to get them off my back with the old hand-is-quicker-than-the-eye trick. Seems like they were even quicker than I thought." "Who? The Caitians that Vitath mentioned?" Elric said, lowering his aim. "She said they were trying to hurt you." The other person sighed, unhappy and then defensive. "Ugh. That's right, Captain. The whole universe doesn't revolve around whatever you have going on at this station. You see, it's my father. We used to hunt alien treasures together with a small group, but now he's sent his goons after me because he says I abandoned him. But, it's more like I just realized he was dealing with some bad people all along." Elric paused, thinking back to Raven and the tubules that struck his arm not too long ago. He then felt a tingly feeling in his left arm and pulled down his sleeve to examine. His arm was turning pale and something was bubbling inside. "Ugh!" "What the hell happened to you?" Claire said, taking a tricorder off a table and scanning him. "You have nanoprobes in your arm. But they appear to be localized to just your arm." The Captain took out an immunosupport hypo and injected his appendage. The bubbling seemed to stop. "How is that possible, unless Mirror Borg somehow sectionalize their assimilation nanoprobes? Not to mention they shouldn't be working right now? Damn. I should have never gotten close to that old man." He looked at Claire. "Never mind. I'll live. Help me get gravity back online; you're still coming with me." "Well don't you know how to make a girl feel wanted," she smirked as they both went over to the gravity control deck, which was previously overloaded from a remote source. Elric began getting backup systems online. Zeta floated off his right shoulder and began scurrying around, in place, in panic. *Click!?* "He seems panicked for some reason," Claire noticed. "Are you an engineer, Captain?" He shook his head. "No, but I wasn't a science officer either and I somehow manufactured all these omicron weapon attachment cells," he replied, opening his satchel and showing her a bag full of his accomplishments. "Oh!" Claire turned their attention to the console. They both got backup systems online and gravity was restored to all the decks aboard Spacedock. The two immediately landed to the floor on their feet, without what some other people may prefer as the comfort of a gradual transition. But another feedback pulse from their tampering exploded a section above their heads and reverberated throughout the station's backup systems. Elric quickly checked another control panel. "Damn. We knocked communications offline. I'll get an exocomp on it." *Click! Chirp!* Zeta leapt back onto Sith's right shoulder in fear as the sounds of something in the vents took everyone's attention away. And then, CLANG! CRACK! The noise echoed into the darkness of the control room and the surrounding, empty corridors. "My father's Caitians." Claire looked at Elric. "They found me down here earlier, but I escaped them when the Borg attacked. There are way too many felines for one rifle and they're more cunning than the Borg." Elric turned to her in disbelief. "So, what? We hide?" "Use their tactic against them," she countered, pulling him toward the darkness. "Then we make our move. Trust me." Seconds after they disappeared into nothingness, a Caitian male, LuKet, dropped from out of the ventilation shaft and into the Gravity Control centre. He began sniffing the air. With the Borg immobilized, his brothers and sisters lurking in obscurity and surrounding the entire deck, he knew he had finally cornered her. --- Corridors The Omega Operatives had noticed the return of gravity, and one of them reported. "Captain, gravity is back online. I'll run a quick scan just to make sure everything is... wait. Sir, Spacedock's communications are gone. Also, there are a lot of Caitians around here." Sarah replied over the comms. "Caitians? What? Elric, are you still hearing this? Apparently one of the Omegas have detected Caitians running around. Oh, and Spacedock communications are down, too." The Omega called out to the other Omegas. "All of you, pair up. I don't like the looks of this." Omega Operatives started searching around until the dozen of them were all in pairs. Sarah waited, then broke the newfound silence. "Elric?" --- Gravity Control "Oh, I guess communications aren't totally offline," Elric realized just about to tap his commbadge to answer when the noise alerted LuKet. The bigger Caitian lurched into the darkness and swung a backhand for Elric, but the Captain quickly fired an antiproton bolt into LuKet, sending him back into a far wall. Three more Caitians dropped into the Gravity Control room and shot out fists at them. Elric pulled around to aim, but his rifle was swiped out from his hands. Zeta leapt onto the face of one of the Caitians, sending that one to the ground. "I thought the Ferasans were the aggressive ones??" Elric said as he blocked a jab and returned with a kick. He then kicked again, more forcefully, and sent his attacking Caitian to the floor. Claire leapt up and forced a knee into the last Caitian's head, then, while in mid-flight, powered a downward kick into the feline sending it down. "Every species has its bad people, but, unfortunately, these guys get brainwashed." When she landed, she found that they were surrounded by even more Caitian siblings. Zeta returned to Elric's right arm, and Elric and Claire backed into each other, holding fighting stances. "Think the Omega Operatives have a spray bottle?" Admiral Nat joined Sarah's efforts and called. "Elric, are you receiving this? We are you?" A spike of seething pain in Elric's left arm threw him to one knee, unable to respond to the hails from the Mephiles. The surrounding Caitians and Claire looked at him. "UGGGHHH!!" "Tag her," LuKet said, menacingly as he walked back over to the group. One of the other Caitians took out a gun and shot Claire with an isolinear tag, dematerializing her away. The loss of the woman next to him sent a hopelessness through Elric and he felt as if he was, yet again, unable to keep a hold of her. With added adrenaline from the pain, he ripped the left sleeve off his uniform to expose his arm from the shoulder down. It was grey, patched with Borg technology, and appeared to be scattered with large, throbbing bubbles. From the edges of each patch came a sickening grey secretion. "This man's nanoprobes are highly voltaic," Kova said, scanning Elric with a tricorder. It was then the Captain's satchel hit the floor and all the omicron weapon attachments fell out. LuKet observed them. "The fool caused his own mutation from the radiation by those things." "You're the fool," Elric struggled to say, having realized the lead Caitian was right. "If you think I'm going to let you get... away with— UGGGgggghhhHHH!" The Caitians hesitated to attack when Elric jerked himself to the floor, on his back, in blistering, unconscionable pain. Zeta ran off in fear and eight tubules blasted out from his assimilated arm and pierced each surrounding Caitian. A bio-electrical current ran through the tubules and into the humanoid felines, forcing them all to feel Elric's pain. They were then fed the mutated nanoprobes which became accelerated and dangerous to their bodies. "What... have... you done...??" LuKet looked at his arms and body which was quickly morphing chaotic, disproportionate mutations and growths all around him. Horrified at what he had involuntarily done, Elric ripped the tubules out of his left arm causing more of the rapidly produced grey fluid to spew profusely out of his arm. The localization of the nanoprobes, accelerated by omicron radiation, was staggering and utterly gruesome. "Uuuhhhhggg! Arrrggh!" With the other Caitians down, morphing and screaming in pain, Elric began dragging his own weakened body toward a shelf. He pulled out a phaser and then slumped back to the floor. Behind him, he could see the trail of drawn out grey matter his alien arm excreted. An unrecognizable LuKet yelped in mere horror, feeding into the echoes of cries from his brothers and sisters. "What have you done to us?? What have you done?!?" "I don't know??" Elric tried to answer, propping himself up against the shelf and programming his phaser into concentrated-cutting beam mode. "I have to.... Have to...." Realizing what the mortified, increasingly heavy breathing human was about to do by aiming the phaser at his own shoulder, LuKet reached his own disproportionate, bubbling limb to his waist device and transported himself and all his now deformed Caitians off Spacedock. "AAAAaaAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!" When Elric was done, both he and his severed extremity were transported away. --- U.S.S. Mephiles Jim called in over the comms. "The Caitians are gone now. Also, we're not detecting Elric, either. He's gone." Sarah sighed and facepalmed. "Of course not. Tag the rest of the drones and come back, huh?" Captain Nat deadpanned Krystal. "Caitians kidnapping Elric? Welp, that was totally expected." --- Admiral Cid - U.S.S. Valhalla, Bridge Later, the older human and Starfleet officer brushed his greying goatee for a moment and stepped forward on the Bridge of the Odyssey-class vessel. The view of Spacedock's lower section filled the large display screen. "Lieutenant Arkane," he said. "Please contact Admiral Nat." His Tellarite tactical officer nodded and tapped a few controls. "Sending sir." When a connection was received, Cid began, "Admiral Nat, this is Admiral Cid. It's come to my attention the Valhalla has a visitor. I just wanted to let you know Captain Elric is in our Sickbay undergoing surgery. I'm told he's going to be okay. It would seem an overzealous Doctor on my ship had transported Elric off Spacedock during a chance discovery of his presence there. Just wanted to keep you in the loop." Admiral Nat replied, "Well, finally some good news. Be sure to let us know when and if his condition changes; I'll be out on a bit of a mission, so you can keep in contact with my first officer, Captain Dennison, who'll be on the bridge shortly. He'll keep me informed." "Will do. Good luck on your mission, Admiral. Valhalla out." When the transmission cut, Admiral Cid nodded to Arkane that his task was over. Cid turned and sat in his command chair. He didn't approve of that Doctor making moves without his consent, but saving a Starfleet Captain definitely was a result he wanted. Either way, Cid would assist Spacedock in any repairs required during their crisis, drop the medical officer and the G'arto survivors off, and then return to the Valhalla's deep space missions.
Author's notes: These are compiled posts for the Earth Spacedock RP on the Star Trek Online forums. Written in November 2016. Earth Spacedock, Pages 75-76 Maintenance Meeting - Earth Spacedock Commander Reeve, head of security, made his way to the Conference room attached to Spacedock's Operations area on Deck 47. He joined the other department heads at the table, who were already well into discussing the situation. "If we don't repair Power Generator 4, half the station's main power will never be back to unfractured operational status," argued Commander Batou, a human and head of engineering. "Remember when Suvel was supposed to fix it?" Commander Allura, an Aenar and head of operations threw up her arms in frustration. "Are you still going on about that? That was so long ago! It's never going to be properly fixed! We need to focus on the core system software, which regulate everything on Spacedock." "Just one question," Commander Lucrecia, a human and station's counselor, interrupted. "Is that mess in Engineering all cleaned up?" Reeve nodded. "As best as we could get. Mirror Borg technology is being removed and stored, and I don't even want to say what was all over the Gravity Control room. Sufficed to say, all Mirror Borg have been tagged and put into the supplemental Medical Bays throughout the station for life support, leaving Deck 47's Infirmary clear." "What's the status of communications and main power?" asked Commander Barnes, a Benzite and head of shipyards. Reeve sat back. "Hey now, that's a question for our commanding officer to ask. Speaking of which, anyone see Captain Sulu anywhere?" "We think he's thoroughly engrossed in something in the Command Ring," answered Allura. "But truthfully, he could be any place." Suddenly, the footsteps of another man entering the Conference room knocked everyone's attention off and toward him. "Well, well, if it isn't the Commander's summit," came the sly observation of Doctor Melzine, an older human male just outputted from the Valhalla. "You?" Lucrecia sat up. "Weren't you the guy who compartmentalized the care of a group of school children in order to secure a chemical compound meant to cure the Andorian shingles?" Melzine scoffed. "A good Doctor manages case priorities based on his experience and judgement, and the Andorians appreciated my work so much that they facilitated my following five projects. Anyway, I'm here to take a position at Spacedock to assist in your drone situation, as it seems preventing an infestation, despite your over-powered anti-devices and Q-injested individuals, was clearly impossible for you." "Okay, all this petty bickering has only proven to get part of our workflow done," Batou said. "I'm not saying we ever stop, but, to answer Barnes, the exocomp Elric set to fix communications was successful and communications are now back online." Allura perked. "What about main power?" "Despite my earlier qualms, it should be back online now as well," Batou reported. "What we need to focus on at present is the removal of the Mirror Borg tech along our exterior hull. The kids don't like it. A Starfleet Academy field trip saw it this morning and were absolutely horrified." Reeve snapped. "Exocom—" "Exocomps!" yelped Lucrecia. "I said it first." Commander Reeve thought for a moment. "Exocomps operating workbees? No, that'd be redundant." "Either way, it's a plan," Allura said. "Let's prep those adorable shakey-hovering bots. The compliant ones, I mean. Not the ones who keep rebelling after our requests to have the lavatories fixed at Club 47." Melzine sighed. "The recovered drone officers will need rehabilitation programs. I will set those up, but that giant Mirror Borg, regarded as Mr. Raven, will need more work and special attention. He will be my project." "Very well. Let's all get this station back to normal and prepare for the next crisis," Allura said. "And we will have more crises. It's our thing we do and we should be very proud of it. Dismissed." --- Captain Elric - Earth Spacedock, Infirmary A disorienting blur of pain and consciousness accompanied the Captain as he awoke in Spacedock's Infirmary. Across the way, was an older Doctor moving between consoles and a table full of engineering parts. The medic took notice of Elric who was trying to make sense of things. "What happened?" Elric asked, groggily. "Claire?" The man walked over. "My name is Doctor Melzine, and you just survived an attack and a mutated form of Mirror Universe assimilation. Honestly, I've never seen someone cut off his own arm before. Well, you're going to be alright now, thanks to some quick thinking. We had you on the Valhalla for a while, but now you're back on Spacedock." "My arm," Elric realized. He quickly sat up and held up his left arm. What he extended was not what he was expecting. It was an unknown metal: A cybernetic arm with all its gears showing and no skin covering whatsoever. "What did you do??" The Doctor smiled and nodded. "Some of my best work. Isn't it wonderful? Right, I should explain that I'm a cyberneticist, and a damn good one. I was being escorted home when I came across you and your unfortunate situation. You gave me the opportunity to affix something I'd been working on for some time. That arm isn't like others. It's incredibly strong. Unfortunately, the trade-off on its power is that it burns through synthetic skin coverings. But don't worry, there's a gradual threshold that protects your own body." "What are you talking about? I never agreed to this!" Elric argued. Melzine nodded. "Actually you did. You were in a lot of pain at the time, but you were conscious enough to give your consent." "Are you kidding me?" Elric said before he interrupted his own self to think back to his own actions. There was a haze of confusion when he tried to remember being taken to the Valhalla's sickbay, but he did recall giving permission for a plan to fix him. Was it the arm? The Doctor walked over. "Well, you did cut your own arm off, which actually saved your life. Those sectionalized, mutated mirror arm-nanoprobes were waiting for communication from the non-existent nanoprobes in the rest of your body. When they didn't get it, their duplication remained and your arm was on the brink of... well... I hate to get graphic, but... your arm was about to explode." He paused. "Sufficed to say, you were destined for an arm replacement anyway." "Yeah, but this?" the Captain held up his left arm again, looking at the way its futuristic gears and semi-exoskeleton glistened and reflected the Infirmary's lights. Doctor Melzine smiled. "Oh, you'll like that. It's not like any other. Give it a chance, and you'll get used to it. Any issues, I can be of help. I'll be right here on Spacedock." He walked away to get to other work. Elric sat back and just relaxed. Later, Elihu M'Konel suddenly woke up. Talitha... Elric got out of bed to leave the Infirmary when the on-duty nurses suddenly ran over to Elihu. The human Captain looked quizzically over to the situation. He walked over. "Damn. I know what that feels like." Elihu stared silently and blankly up at the ceiling, catatonic. A nurse gave Elric a hard look. He was clearly standing where she wanted to stand. "Yeah, I should probably let you handle this. Last time I did anything outside my department, this happened." He held up his arm still in shock of his circumstances and then walked off to put his Odyssey uniform back on. To his surprise the uniform sleeve went over his new arm just fine. He then picked up a PADD with a generalized overview of the new appendage and left the Infirmary to study it. --- Main Concourse Elric walked along the Main Concourse, stopping at a railing to look out at the area. He regretted and blamed himself for what had happened in Engineering. It was just like the Na'khul attack he had endured in the past, only this time, the entire Earth could have been at risk. And then there was the arm; the reminder of his failure in the present, and, feasibly, his past. If he was to redeem himself, he would have to do it through duty. Unfortunately, Claire was still missing. As he stared out, he noticed three civilian Saurian men talking and one of them with a metallic box in his hands. Upon further squinting, Elric realized the civilian was holding Zeta. "Uh, hi, excuse me," the Captain said, approaching them. "But you have my spider." Brot, interrupted, looked at Elric in disgust. "You have no claim here, Starfleet. Why don't you go fight a Klingon or something?" "You know, I have not had a great couple of days. I thought many things were happening beyond my control, but now I think I should have exercised a little bit more of my own actions. Today seems like a good day to start. Therefore, give me that spider," Elric demanded. The lead Saurian smirked. "Finders keepers. What are you going to do? Fight me? I'm a 5 time anbo-jytsu champion." "You're something alright," Elric replied as he reached for Zeta, who appeared to be offline. But one of the other Saurians threw out their own arm and deflected Elric's. Another Saurian shot a fist for Elric's face, but Elric brought up his right arm and blocked it. He then shot out his left, cybernetic arm and force-palmed the Saurian off his feet. "Ugh!" "I'll be arresting you now," Elric said before the lead Saurian flew a kick for his head. Elric caught the foot, but Brot just leapt off his last leg and spun his body around to kick Elric with the other foot. The Captain dropped the first leg, but used his left forearm to stop the force of the speeding, second kick, cold in its tracks. Elric then used his grip of Brot's other foot to push the Saurian in mid-air, away, and into his other standing friend. The two Saurians hit the floor, losing grasp of Zeta, which Elric swiped out of mid-flight, effortlessly. "I'm telling my father about you! He's an Admiral, you know!" Brot whined before he and his group scrambled to their feet and ran off. "Really?" Elric said, deadpanned and disappointed at the change in tone. He then nudged Zeta, taking the spider out of its trance. Zeta extended its legs and perked up in Elric's palms. *Click!?* "Sorry I got a little crazy back there in Engineering. I was compromised, and later definitely paid for it," Elric apologized. "You still on my team? There's plenty of more payback to disseminate." The spider hopped and then climbed himself up onto Elric's right shoulder, where he usually regenerated. *Click, click, chirp! Team.*
Author's notes: First City was a KDF faction set RP on the Star Trek Online forums, running along-side Earth Spacedock RP. Figured I would start it off with Menchez (one of my main Captains, like Aeris was for Earth Spacedock). Menchez was last seen trying to salvage his badly-damaged ship, the Vor'cha-class I.K.S. B'Cnah in LC 28: "Life or Death". These are compiled posts, including some other player's characters, written in November 2016. First City, Page 1 Captain Menchez - First City, Bar The Klingon warrior sat alone at a table in the First City's local bar. Menchez had downed another cup of bloodwine when the Orion waitress walked passed. "Hold on," Menchez growled. "Another drink!" The waitress approached him. "You've had eight so far," she said. "Are you sure about this?" "I will cease my thirst onslaught when Command gives me another ship. Until then, here I remain," he replied. "And if you must know, the I.K.S. B'Cnah was taken to near-ruin by a group of Kazon, led by an augment-Cardassian woman." She blinked. "The Kazon? Well, that explains the drinking. But can a warrior be a true warrior when he drowns his sorrows in pity?" "Perhaps you are right. But I do not drink out of sorrow for myself, but respect for my fallen comrades, and perhaps a little animosity for those who oppose me." The Orion groaned. "Ugh. Fine. Whatever." "Wait," Menchez held her arm for a second. "The next one will be my last. And, please, a plate of gagh." Another Klingon, a general in one of the fancier Bortas'qu uniforms, sat down at a nearby table and ordered bloodwine. Menchez approached Kro'nok. "General, this is a good day to reflect on past victories. May I join you?" Meanwhile, D'ren 341 sat in the upper level, receiving a mental communique. We've got reports of a potential civil war, D'ren. The Ministry of Thirteen has chosen you to speak to the changeling posing as J'mpok to rally the KDF. Facing the sparring down below, this particular clone sat at a table alone, his short wavy black hair slicked back over his head. D'ren 341 groaned, picked up his drink, stood up and slowly sauntered down stairs. An Orion male grabbed his arm from behind, obviously oblivious to the notoriety of the man. "Hey! Romulan ale's not sold here!" Menchez took notice of the Orion man, causing a ruckus. "Fool," Menchez said to the green-skinned alien. "Just because he is not Klingon, doesn't mean he is no warrior. I would watch who I confront in these halls." The general turned to the Orion as well, nodded to Menchez. "He is correct. Listen to him." "I work security here!" barked the Orion. Keeping the Orion out of view behind him, D'ren smirked at Menchez and Kro'nok. "Ye must be new," he said to the Orion in an Irish accent. He then twisted around suddenly and removed the security guard's grasp from his bicep, and then followed it with an uppercut to his large chin, putting the brute on his back with a single strike. Two other Orions, both females, stood up and drew Klingon disruptors. Both green-skinned women fired their weapons on the highest possible setting, slowly and agonizingly vaporizing D'ren 431. In one hour, thousands of D'ren clones died seemingly unrelated deaths. However, as the reports filed in to the Ministry of Thirteen, it became clear that this orchestra was being conducted by the Omega. Menchez glanced at Kro'nok, surprised. "Well, that was excessive. Any ideas what that was about?" General Kro'nok turned and looked back at Menchez. "Romulan Ale, apparently." The general sat down, and motioned for Menchez to sit down at his table. "Let us talk of victory." Menchez took a seat as a Klingon teenager ran over to the spot where the human was vapourized and began scrubbing the floor; an odd job since the Bar in general was filthy. The Captain was passed another bloodwine and his plate of gagh while he tried to ignore the echoing voices from afar. "I've been in the Empire for a long time, left it, then returned again. Since I've been back I've succeeded against the Xindi in the past, warp-10 salamanders, a murderous Section 31 agent, my own undead crew, assimilated snowmen and, finally, the Vidiians. I am proud of my successes, even if they will not be enough to save me at this point. And you, General? I presume good conquests on your part." The general turned to look out the window at the strange voices, then looked back at Menchez. "Oh, very good conquests. Won battles against some of the best in Starfleet, as weak as they may be. Took on the Borg, the Iconians, and really showed the Na'kuhl not to mess around with the Klingon Empire! In fact, we could be here all night listening to me tell you stories about some of the absolutely glorious battles that I won." Menchez smirked. It was refreshing to hear of these victories in a time of his own undoing. He raised his drink. "Then to your glorious battles, General. May you have many more!" The general raised his newly delivered drink as well. "To glorious battles!" Menchez brought his cup down, pleased, but paused in thought. "General, I believe you may have future battles, but I perhaps may not. You see, actions by myself in the past dishonoured my crew and my ship. I allowed the Kazon to get the best of me." He stared at his gagh, unable to eat it. "We both know the High Council was killed by an Iconian. Today, I am to go before a new Councillor to have my case reviewed. I requested a new ship, but it is more likely he will push to dissolve my House. There is an upcoming battle, but I fear I will not be part of it." The general raised an eyebrow. "Captain, if what you say is true... one of the most honorable things you can do is to accept that, and face that fact like a true Klingon. Do not run away, like others usually do. Live up to it and do something honorable. Go before the new Councillor and tell him the truth, and he may yet see the true Klingon you truly are." Menchez thought about it. "Perhaps you are right. I will give it a shot. I will be in the Great Hall if you are poised to be witness." He then took out a datarod and placed it on the table. "In the meantime, if I do not come back from this, you must extrapolate this information. It is of the location of a secret Klingon facility, lead by an old House. One that was supposedly decimated and kicked from the Empire centuries ago: a House of Kovog. I believe they have been growing their own fleet outside the Empire for a long time and plan to use our weakened political state to attack and seize power. We must strike them first. Qapla'." Menchez stood and left for the Great Hall. The general picked up the datarod and looked at it. He finished his mug of bloodwine and set it aside, then got up and returned to his ship, gave the datarod to his senior officers to have them decode the information, and then returned for the Great Hall to see what happens to Menchez. --- First City, Great Hall, Council Chambers The Klingon warrior entered the giant chambers where many other men and women gathered. A new Council Member, an abnormally tall Klingon man named Ghrokh, turned away, finishing an awkward conversation with Chancellor J'mpok and turned to perceive Menchez's entrance. Various regular proceedings on this day took place in a public environment. "Menchez, son of Drognov, of the House of Rokkon, named after your great grandfather, you stand in judgement of allowing your crew to disappear on Hanon IV. An investigation has completed, and you have been deemed innocent of any crime, but may still be judged for neglect by the current incarnation of the council. If so, we may deem your House expendable in the eyes of the Empire. Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Taking a breath, Menchez replied, "Only that I pledged my life to protect my crew and to the Empire, and if any circumstances that occurred led to their demise, I take full responsibility. I should have been better, stronger, faster than the petaQ that beat me, and I will do nothing to stop myself from honoring the Klingon Empire until I am deemed worthy again." "I see you also requested a new command," Ghrokh observed on a PADD. He then, out of character, walked over to Menchez and handed the Captain the PADD. "Can you tell me if the information you provided here is correct." Confused, Menchez looked from some of the people observing, including that of Chancellor J'mpok and General Kro'nok, back to Council Member Ghrokh. "You'll have to excuse our disorder today. There have been several reports of human deaths around Qo'noS. My attention has been elsewhere," the taller man said. "Several men who all look alike appear to have died on accident." It seemed, to Menchez, as if the Council Member was stalling for some reason. It was then he noticed the PADD wasn't his ship request at all, but, rather, an intelligence report that was deemed unconfirmed. "If you say you would do anything for the Empire, then I would need proof. Would you risk everything, even, hypothetically, something like treason?" Ghrokh asked, momentarily flicking his gaze to the side, indicating J'mpok's presence. The report in Menchez's hands questioned the Chancellor's current existence. It postulated he was not who he said he was, possibly a Changeling, and that the real J'mpok was suspected as being held with the long dissolved House of Kovog. To this, Captain Menchez could only conclude he was being challenged to test these claims at risk to his own standing as a Klingon citizen. Still driven by his desire to prove himself, Menchez quickly flung his d'k tahg right at J'mpok, penetrating the knife directly into the Klingon's forehead. No blood was spilt, and no pain was had either. Suddenly, a group of five unknown Klingons, there to protect the imposter, beamed in with disruptor rifles and opened fire upon everyone in the Chambers. General Kro'nok pulled out an Honor Guard disruptor pulsewave rifle and fired, blasting away the 5 so-called Klingons and knocking them to the floor. When the commotion and dust conceded, Menchez looked around to find that J'mpok had disappeared somewhere and Ghrokh and several other Klingon security guards were busy speaking into their communicators. When the Council Member was finished, he walked over to the Captain. "You took a chance at great risk to yourself, Captain," Ghrokh said when he was satisfied the City was being combed by its entire security force. "And I knew that you would. If this is connected to those deaths, or separate, I am uncertain. But since you have proven yourself honorable, the I.K.S. Kragoth will be yours to command for now. Continue to prove yourself, and it will remain yours." The old Klingon cracked his neck. "I will. But what of the exiled House of Kovog? What are your plans for them?" "We would attack immediately, but we cannot confirm or prove that it was them. If these bodies report on their DNA, then that will be a different story. Not to mention we do not have any idea where they are located." Menchez snarled. "Actually, General Kro'nok may have information on a planet-orbiting space station. May we pursue?" "Make it so, Captain," he replied. "I will notify you on the results of our medical scans." General Kro'nok stood there nearby, nodding to Menchez. "I'll prepare my ship. Meet us in orbit, when you are ready." The general pressed some buttons on his communicator and dematerialized, beaming to his vessel, the powerful Kar'fi-class battle-carrier I.K.S. Ha'vok, which hovered in orbit.
You have GOT to tell that story... Are you certain Picard wasn't posing as a klingon here... Quite enjoyed Menchez's instant reaction - hurling a knife at the chancellor. Thanks!! rbs